Nor am I unaware that all fishes are called by one generic name, camasenes, by Empedocles the natural philosopher, when he says—
How could the mighty trees and sea-born camasenes . . .And the poet, too, who wrote the Cyprian poems (whether he was a Cyprian or a man of the name of Stasinus, or whatever else his name may have been, represents Nemesis as pursued by Jupiter, and metamorphosed into a fish, in the following lines:—
And after them she brought forth Helen third,
A marvel to all mortal men to see;
Her then the fair-hair'd Nemesis did bear,
Compell'd by Jove, the sovereign of the gods.
She indeed fled, nor sought to share the love
Of that great father, son of Saturn, Jove;
For too great awe did overpower her mind:
So Nemesis did flee o'er distant lands,
And o'er the black and barren waves o' the sea;
[p. 529] But Jove pursued her (and with eagerness
His soul desired her). In vain she took
The form of some large fish who bounds along,
Borne on the vast high-crested roaring wave;
Sometimes she fled along the ocean, where
The earth's most distant boundaries extend;
Sometimes she fled along the fertile land;
And took all shapes of every animal
Which the land bears, to flee from amorous Jove.
